Platform UI consists of several components, which provide the basic building blocks for user interfaces built with Eclipse. Some of these can be reused in arbitrary applications, while others are specific to the Eclipse IDE.

Platform UI consists of several components, which provide the basic building blocks for user interfaces built with Eclipse. Some of these can be reused in arbitrary applications, while others are specific to the Eclipse IDE.

Revision as of 08:18, 30 June 2011

Platform UI consists of several components, which provide the basic building blocks for user interfaces built with Eclipse. Some of these can be reused in arbitrary applications, while others are specific to the Eclipse IDE.

Two of the Platform UI components form the Rich Client Platform UI. These are JFace and the Workbench. JFace and the Workbench can be used to build arbitrary applications, not just the Eclipse IDE. The Eclipse IDE is just one instance of an RCP application, but it demonstrates the power and extensibility achievable by RCP applications.

Platform UI also provides the IDE application plug-in, which instantiates and configures the Generic Workbench to form the IDE Workbench, on top of which lies the rest of the Eclipse IDE Platform and the Eclipse SDK (including the Java Development Tools and Plug-in Development Environment). Unlike the Generic Workbench, the IDE application plug-in is intended only for use in the IDE Platform, and is not designed as a reusable component for use in other RCP applications.

Platform UI does, however, provide some other components that can be reused in other RCP applications. These are: